Graham Perrett (Moreton, Australian Labor Party, Shadow Assistant Minister for Education and Training) Share this | Link to this | Hansard source

It is 340 days since Prime Minister Morrison took office—nudging a year. I wonder what Australians have learned about our Prime Minister during that time? What has the current Prime Minister achieved, and what will his legacy be for Australia? They are the questions I ask as we approach the one year mark since he bundled Malcolm Turnbull out of the Lodge.

I will start from the beginning, or shortly before the beginning, to be precise. Remember that quote: 'I'm ambitious for him.' That's what the now Prime Minister said about former Prime Minister Turnbull. Two days later he was sitting in Malcolm's chair. To the outside world, the then Treasurer appeared the loyal servant of the Turnbull ministry, but reports have since emerged, in Niki Savva's book and elsewhere, that the boy from Bronte was already sounding out potential supporters for a tilt at the leadership. He was a chameleon—the loyal servant to some, and the potential successor to those who were already in his camp.

The following anecdote is telling. Australians take their sport seriously. We're tribal. Loyalty to your code or team is essential. The State of Origin rugby league series is a case in point. I have fierce loyalty to the Maroons, and others support the Blues, on three nights of the year. We can be friends on other nights, but on those three nights we're loyal.

Everybody knows that the Prime Minister now is a huge NRL Cronulla Sharks fan, but he's the boy from Bronte, which is right in the heart of Easts territory. He was born a chook but is now often photographed with a Sharks cap on. It is quite a transmogrification to go from a rooster to a shark. In the first week of his prime ministership he was interviewed while holding a rugby league ball. He is an advertising man; he knows symbols. Portraying himself as the everyman rugby league fan could not have provided a starker contrast to the previous Prime Minister, Mr Turnbull. But the member for Cook, previously the boy from Bronte, has tweeted, in his own words, that he grew up on rugby—rugby union, not Rugby League. In 2010 the Prime Minister said he preferred rugby union to rugby league. In 2012 he said rugby union will 'always be my game'. In 2015 he said, 'I'm more of a rugby fan.' It's interesting that we don't hear the Prime Minister championing rugby union these days. He seems to be happy to have ditched his beliefs because it's politically expedient for the advertising man to be an NRL fan. It's an insight into a person's character that they can discard loyalty to sporting teams when convenient. You can photoshop your life to make it more presentable.

Last week, we heard the Prime Minister announce that he wants to see a dramatic drop in the number of people who take their own lives. He has appointed a new adviser to tackle mental health issues. This is something that I and Labor support 100 per cent. The Prime Minister said he is working towards a zero-suicide goal. I applaud that sentiment and the work that will go towards it. Suicide is a major public health issue which kills more than 3,000 Australians in a typical year. Suicide is the leading cause of death for people aged between 15 and 44, which is perhaps a shocking indictment of a society working towards experiencing a hope drought. However, unless Prime Minister Morrison is prepared to tackle the underlying disadvantage that accompanies many suicides, the member for Cook's sentiments will be worth noting but will achieve little. Studies have shown that people in the most-disadvantaged communities are 71 per cent more likely to suicide than those in the most advantaged.

Let's compare the Prime Minister's sentiments about preventing suicide—they are noble words—to his comments in question time in the latest parliamentary fortnight. He called the desire to raise the rate of Newstart 'unfunded empathy'. What sort of dry-hearted brute would approach empathy that way? The Prime Minister continues to say, 'The best form of welfare is a job.' All those hoping to advance on the Prime Minister's watch loudly parrot those lines, but for those who can't get a job the Newstart payment is $277.85 a week. I know that I definitely couldn't live on $277.85 a week.

New data out today shows that our economy is floundering. That is evident, with wages stagnating and living standards declining. The HILDA survey reveals that real median household income declined by almost $500 in 2017. It is lower than when the Liberals and Nationals took office back in 2013. In contrast, the biggest annual increases in real median household income occurred under the Rudd and Gillard governments, with annual increases of over $4,000 in both 2009 and 2012. The HILDA report showed that the percentage of the population in relative poverty increased to 10.4 per cent in 2017. That figure is disgraceful.

In September, the coalition government kicks off its seventh year in office. For two-thirds of that time the member for Cook has been either Treasurer or Prime Minister, so on his watch Australians are going backwards. The boy from Bronte has no plan to turn things around. If he were truly worried about mental health issues, he would be doing something about reducing the financial stress that working Australians face. Australians are worried about their wages, and if they have a job they're worried about the security of their job. Many can't get ahead, no matter how hard they work. Penalty rates have been cut under this government, so many who work weekends have even less take-home pay.

The Prime Minister's oft-quoted mantra is: 'If you're having a go, you'll get a go,' and I've heard it in many first speeches in the last few weeks. But where does that leave those who, no matter how hard they try, just can't get a go? Australians who are out of work or are relying on Newstart, that $277.85, are not going to go very far. They're flat out finding a place to stay and finding adequate sustenance. Trying to find work costs money: money to travel to interviews; money to access the internet to put in applications and send resumes; and money to look presentable, by having your hair cut, for example. Yet we hear members of the coalition complaining, even when they're pulling in $230,000 plus a year.

If you have a job, getting to work can be as stressful as your work day. The time that it takes Australians to get to work has risen 23 per cent since 2002. On average, Australians spend 4.5 hours a week getting to and from work. I know many of my constituents sit in traffic at some of the local bottlenecks every day on their way to work or study. For commuters in Sydney, the average journey to and from work each day is 71 minutes, and in Melbourne it is 65 minutes. The report notes that longer commute times can reduce worker wellbeing through diminished job satisfaction and flexibility between work and non-work commitments, and obviously it's bad for productivity. Even more concerning, long commutes can lead to negative family outcomes. Parents are prevented from spending precious time with their families. The frustrating thing is we know how to fix this. We need infrastructure and we need it now.

The Morrison government has made a big song and dance every day in question time about their $100 billion infrastructure pipeline. It sounds like something from an Austin Powers movie, but less than 30 per cent of this money is budgeted to be spent in the next four years. In my electorate of Moreton, the Coopers Plains crossing is a major headache for commuters and—I am reliably told—has been an issue for nearly 50 years, and it sadly can be very dangerous. The Morrison government have promised to fix it but can't say when. I asked the Deputy Prime Minister a question about it last week.

The government's record on infrastructure spending is dismal, having actually spent $5.1 billion less than they promised in their first six years in office. So bringing forward infrastructure spending would not only help the commute of many thousands of Australians, busting congestion and improving their wellbeing, but, importantly, stimulate this floundering economy. If the Prime Minister wants to do more than talk about the mental health and wellbeing of Australians, he needs to fast track some economic policy to boost growth, wages and living standards.

Just four days before the May election, the Prime Minister, in a narrow-cast message that was broadcast by the mainstream media, committed to 'providing Australians of religious belief with protections equivalent to those guaranteed in relation to other protected attributes under Commonwealth anti-discrimination law'. Understandably, many people of faith were concerned amidst this campaign that they did not already have any protection for their religious beliefs. It is true that federal antidiscrimination law does not make discrimination solely on the basis of religion unlawful—as I'm sure the member for Goldstein would know from his days in the commission. However, in Queensland and also in the ACT, Northern Territory, Tasmania, Victoria and Western Australia, discrimination related to religion, religious conviction, religious belief or religious activity can be unlawful. In South Australia, discrimination on the basis of religious dress or appearance in work or study can be unlawful.

So, sadly, we see in this parliament under Prime Minister Morrison a common theme emerging: social division. The mantra from the Morrison government is divisive and harmful—workers against the unemployed, taxpayers against the nontaxpayers, high-income earners against low-income earners, religious against non-religious or those just not accepted by religions, those living in the regions against those living in urban areas.

Over the past generation, inequality in Australia has risen markedly; that means more social immobility. My colleague the member for Fenner used the example of a ladder with rungs where the rungs are spaced a long way apart—it's harder to climb up than down. We need to do much more to tackle inequality; we need to boost growth, wages and living standards.